Pro Se Appellants: Opportunities for Law Libraries

This article is part of the 2018 Dickinson Law Review Symposium entitled “Access to Justice: Innovations and Challenges in Providing Assistance to Pro Se Litigants.” The author is the state law librarian for Minnesota who reports to the Minnesota Supreme Court. This article surveys various resources that Minnesota provides to unrepresented clients, including the website resources found here: https://perma.cc/R2DP-K9YB. The bulk of the article, however, focuses on Minnesota’s innovative in-person “Appeals Self-Help Clinics.” See https://perma.cc/Y2VN-H2L3. The article’s discussion of Minnesota’s Appeals Self-Help Clinics begins by highlighting some of the factors that provided the impetus for the development of these clinics. For example, in 2017, almost one quarter of the appeals filed with the Minnesota Court of Appeals included at least one party who was unrepresented. Some areas of law had a much higher percentage of unrepresented parties, such as family law, where the rate was 37 percent and unemployment appeals, where 92 percent of cases had an unrepresented or pro se party. This article describes the philosophy behind Minnesota’s Appeals Self-Help Clinics, the preparatory steps required before Minnesota’s State Library launched this program, the type of help these clinics provide to appellant litigants, the recruitment process for pro bono lawyers who staff the clinics, as well as details about the operation of the monthly in-person Appeals Self-Help Clinics. It also discusses the various documents and guidelines the clinic uses. See https://perma.cc/G3LZ-LQDS and https://perma.cc/6LWW-HB4F. In short, this article should be of interest not only to academics and others who study how our court systems have responded to large numbers of pro se clients and the resulting access to justice issues, but to jurisdictions that would like a detailed roadmap. The information in this article will help interested jurisdictions deliver better access to justice for unrepresented litigants, while simultaneously making the appellate process more efficient for judges, the court system, and represented litigants

Life-Cycle Energy, Costs, and Strategies for Improving a Single-Family House

The life-cycle energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and costs of a contemporary 2,450 sq ft (228 m 3 ) U.S. residential home (the standard home, or SH) were evaluated to study opportunities for conserving energy throughout pre-use (materials production and construction), use (including maintenance and improvement), and demolition phases. Home construction and maintenance materials and appliances were inventoried totaling 306 metric tons. The use phase accounted for 91% of the total life-cycle energy consumption over a 50-year home life. A functionally equivalent energy-efficient house (EEH) was modeled that incorporated 11 energy efficiency strategies. These strategies led to a dramatic reduction in the EEH total life-cycle energy; 6,400 GJ for the EEH compared to 16,000 GJ for the SH. For energy-efficient homes, embodied energy of materials is important; pre-use energy accounted for 26% of life-cycle energy. The discounted (4%) life-cycle cost, consisting of mortgage, energy, maintenance, and improvement payments varied between 426,700 and 454,300 for a SH using four energy price forecast scenarios. In the case of the EEH, energy cost savings were offset by higher mortgage costs, resulting in total life-cycle cost between 434,100 and 443,200. Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions were 1,010 metric tons CO 2 equivalent for an SH and 370 metric tons for an EEH.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75688/1/108819800569726.pd

Kompetanseheving i barnehagen

Problemstilling: Hvordan arbeider pedagogisk leder for å heve kompetansen til sine assistenter?publishedVersio

mCLCA3 Modulates IL-17 and CXCL-1 Induction and Leukocyte Recruitment in Murine Staphylococcus aureus Pneumonia

The human hCLCA1 and its murine ortholog mCLCA3 (calcium-activated chloride channel regulators) are exclusively expressed in mucus cells and linked to inflammatory airway diseases with increased mucus production, such as asthma, cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Both proteins have a known impact on the mucus cell metaplasia trait in these diseases. However, growing evidence points towards an additional role in innate immune responses. In the current study, we analyzed Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia, an established model to study pulmonary innate immunity, in mCLCA3-deficient and wild-type mice, focusing on the cellular and cytokine-driven innate inflammatory response. We compared clinical signs, bacterial clearance, leukocyte immigration and cytokine responses in the bronchoalveolar compartment, as well as pulmonary vascular permeability, histopathology, mucus cell number and mRNA expression levels of selected genes (mClca1 to 7, Muc5ac, Muc5b, Muc2, Cxcl-1, Cxcl-2, Il-17). Deficiency of mCLCA3 resulted in decreased neutrophilic infiltration into the bronchoalveolar space during bacterial infection. Only the cytokines IL-17 and the murine CXCL-8 homolog CXCL-1 were decreased on mRNA and protein levels during bacterial infection in mCLCA3-deficient mice compared to wild-type controls. However, no differences in clinical outcome, histopathology or mucus cell metaplasia were observed. We did not find evidence for regulation of any other CLCA homolog that would putatively compensate for the lack of mCLCA3. In conclusion, mCLCA3 appears to modulate leukocyte response via IL-17 and murine CXCL-8 homologs in acute Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia which is well in line with the proposed function of hCLCA1 as a signaling molecule acting on alveolar macrophages

Tilting the lasso by knowledge-based post-processing

Background It is useful to incorporate biological knowledge on the role of genetic determinants in predicting an outcome. It is, however, not always feasible to fully elicit this information when the number of determinants is large. We present an approach to overcome this difficulty. First, using half of the available data, a shortlist of potentially interesting determinants are generated. Second, binary indications of biological importance are elicited for this much smaller number of determinants. Third, an analysis is carried out on this shortlist using the second half of the data. Results We show through simulations that, compared with adaptive lasso, this approach leads to models containing more biologically relevant variables, while the prediction mean squared error (PMSE) is comparable or even reduced. We also apply our approach to bone mineral density data, and again final models contain more biologically relevant variables and have reduced PMSEs. Conclusion Our method leads to comparable or improved predictive performance, and models with greater face validity and interpretability with feasible incorporation of biological knowledge into predictive models

Integrating sustainability in an electronic engineering program: insights and experiences on academic staff involvement

There is a growing urgency to incorporate sustainability in all facets of society to stay within the planetary boundaries. Higher education has a significant role by educating their students - our future work forces – with the knowledge and competences that are crucial for working with sustainability challenges. The development of sustainable technology thereby takes a significant place, pointing out the role of engineering education. This article presents the journey of integrating sustainability in the M.Sc programme Electronic System Design and Innovation at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. We focus on three aspects of this journey. First, we present the approach used and the process stages for the integration of sustainability, which is a renewed version of a toolbox for integrating ecodesign in engineering studies. Secondly, we present how academic staff is involved throughout the integration process. To be able to succeed with incorporating sustainability into a study programme, it is important to engage and empower academic staff, since they have a central position through their responsibility for a study’s central building blocks - the different courses. Lastly, we outline insights and experiences from the perspective of academic staff and the project team involved in the integration process. We conclude with how the approach used and the lessons learned can provide useful strategic and practical insights for other engineering programmes in their process of integrating sustainability and plans for future activities